Building Nella: An AI Assistant with an Audience of One

​Please join us as JC Grubbs, CEO of Tandem, presents his talk "Building Nella: An AI Assistant with an Audience of One"

​Abstract

​Most AI assistants get built for millions of users. Nella has exactly one: me. She runs on a VPS, talks through Telegram, SMS, or Slack, and has her hands on my inbox, calendar, drive, Notion, GitHub, and about ninety other things. She remembers what I told her last Tuesday. She chews through my meeting transcripts while I’m still driving home. When something breaks, she can read her own logs and suggest the fix.

​This talk is a builder’s tour. How the architecture actually works: the tool registry, the memory pipeline, the confirmation flow, the webhook server that lets external services ping her. Why designing for one user changes every design decision you thought you’d already made. What it’s like to hand a bot the keys to your digital life, and where the seams show when you do.

​Then we’ll look ahead. MCP, sharper browser agents, longer context, model-to-model orchestration. The tools get better every month. I’ll make some bets about what personal AI looks like when it stops being a feature inside someone else’s product and starts being something you run yourself.​

​Location

​This event is hosted in the Teamworking by TechNexus space. Upon arrival, guests can come directly to the 12th floor—no need to check in at the lobby. The reception team will be there to greet you and help guide you to your room.

Parking & Transportation
The Civic Opera Building does not have a dedicated parking lot. There is limited metered parking nearby. We recommend using iParkit or SpotHero to find discounted parking options. The CME Building (10 S. Wacker) is the nearest parking garage, with several additional garages located within a two-block radius.

​​The venue location is highly walkable and conveniently situated near multiple CTA train lines and bus stops, making it easy to access via public transportation.

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Agenda

​​​​6:00 - 6:30 Networking and Bites

​​​​6:30 - 7:15 Presentation

​​​​7:15 - 7:30 Q&A

​​​​7:30 - 8:00 Networking and Wrap Up

​​Sponsors:
​​Food and Beverage: Focused an exclusive LangChain partner and boutique consultancy dedicated to building production-ready AI systems that work in the real world.

​​Venue: Teamwork @ TechNexus

​​​Continue the conversation between gatherings. Join our discord (https://discord.gg/bmdwxs2Q5F)